Messages link N.J. governor's aide to lane closures

Bridge lane closures that caused gridlock

TRENTON, N.J. — Emails and text messages released today link a top aide to Gov. Chris Christie to traffic jams in a New Jersey town in September that appear to have been engineered as political payback against its mayor.

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly wrote in August to David Wildstein, a top appointee of the governor’s to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

“Got it,” replied Wildstein. About a month later, he ordered closed two of three traffic lanes that connect Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge between New Jersey and New York City, one of the world’s busiest spans.

The message was among a series of emails and texts obtained by The Associated Press and other news outlets today that are the clearest sign yet that Christie aides were involved in the lane closures. They contradict Christie’s earlier assertions on the closures, when he denied that they were punitive and said his staff was not involved.

At a news conference in December, Christie described the episode as “not that big a deal.” He said partisan politics were at play and blamed the media for being obsessed with the story.

Christie abruptly postponed a scheduled morning event after the emails were made public.

A star in the Republican Party who’s considered a possible candidate for president in 2016, the governor has nurtured an image as both a tough talker who takes on such adversaries as public workers’ unions and a politician willing to compromise. Democrats have increasingly criticized him for what they see as him tending to his national profile at the expense of taking care of New Jersey issues. As chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he’s preparing to travel the country to help get Republican governors elected.

Wildstein, a childhood friend of the governor, has resigned over the lane closings, as has Christie’s top Port Authority deputy, Bill Baroni. Both have hired lawyers. Wildstein is scheduled to testify under oath before a state Assembly committee conducting one of three ongoing investigations into the lane closings.

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, originally described the closings as punitive, but later backed off that assertion.

Among the communications, some of which are redacted, is an email from Wildstein to Kelly on Sept. 7, two days before the lane closings started. He said he’d call her “to let you know how Fort Lee goes.”

There is also a series of unattributed text message exchanges among the Christie aides and appointees that show apparent satisfaction in response to the mayor’s pleas of help to ease traffic.

In one, someone asks, “Is it wrong that I’m smiling?”

Later, as questions began surfacing about what prompted the lane closure, Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien, one of the governor’s most trusted advisers, discussing the controversy with Wildstein.

Sent a copy of an article about the closings by Wildstein, Stepien replied: “It’s fine. The mayor is an idiot, though. (Win) some, lose some.”